Over the past several decades, many ceramic-metal composites have been developed to attempt to make materials having the advantages of ceramics (e.g., stiffness and high temperature resistance) and metals (e.g., toughness and formability) in the same material while minimizing the disadvantages of each. For example, ceramic-metal composites in which metals are reinforced with ceramic particulates of various geometries (e.g., whiskers) and ceramic fibers have been produced. Typically, such ceramic-metal composites are formed by co-sintering metal and ceramic powders, infiltrating a molten metal into a porous ceramic preform or introducing ceramic particulates into a molten metal, which is then cast.
Laminates of ceramics and metal foils are also quite common with an example being capacitors. Coatings of ceramics on metals or metals encapsulated by ceramics to reduce oxidation have been developed such as porcelain enameled cookware. Single layer laminates or coatings of ceramics and ceramic metal composites on metals have been described for making brake rotors. Likewise, tungsten carbide-cobalt has been brazed or welded on many metals to form cutting implements such as carbide tipped saw blades and drill bits.
Each of the aforementioned, however, have failed to exploit the properties of a ceramic particulate based ceramic-metal composite combined with a metal or ceramic monolithic part.